-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Tax authorities have conducted 30-35 raids in Karnataka and parts of Andhra Pradesh as part of a drive to smoke out cash hoarders, even as the government and RBI moved to pump in funds into some of the states facing a currency crunch. In Bihar, for instance, Rs 800-900 crore has been pumped in through the ATM network with initial assessments suggesting that the shortage may...

-Scroll.in From ATM logistics to deliberate lack of supply to Nirav Modi, there are many explanations for the shortage. One of the most unusual things about the cash crunch that is affecting a number of Indian states, which the government officially acknowledged on Tuesday, is that the causes of the shortage are unclear. In various statements, government officials have pointed the blame at an “unusual spurt” in currency demand, although they...

-The Indian Express The focus in the Union Budget on tertiary healthcare at the cost of primary and secondary healthcare is flawed. A publicly-financed health insurance scheme is no substitute If the past three Union budgets were any indication, this budget’s approach to the health sector should not have surprised anyone. The prescription in the National Health Policy (NHP) 2017 to increase the government’s (Centre and the states together) health expenditure from the...

-TheWire.in In 2016-17, pending payments under the employment scheme in the state amounted to a whopping Rs 5,571 crore. Tiravur, Tamil Nadu: “I could kill someone,” said Janaki Chinarasu in early June at her home in Tiruvarur, protecting her forehead from the heat with her hands askew. “It’s like the sun god has conspired with the rain god to punish us.” Chinarasu is a frail, strong-witted woman with a five-year-old on her lap...

-Hindustan Times The design of large injections of public funds for India’s agriculture economy needs to be informed with rigorous evaluations on what is effective for higher farm productivity. A wage subsidy for farm-labour is one modification that needs an evaluation, to generate evidence to inform how the MGNREGA policy generates employment when there is need, but without stress to farm production Indian agriculture is witnessing a period of complex socio-economic distress,...